[media-credit name=”Perry Nelson” align=”alignright” width=”350″]
[/media-credit]The past two months of racing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series have gone perfectly for D.J. Kennington as he won five consecutive races, becoming the eighth driver to complete the feat in NASCAR Touring Series history. Nobody has gone six races in a row so everybody is asking who will be the one that can stop the streak, if possible.
With this weekend’s race begin at Circuit de Trois-Riveries, everybody is betting on Andrew Ranger as he won three of the five races won on the 1.53-mile temporary road course. Meanwhile, Kennington has yet to score a win on the road course, scoring a best career finish of third. He has scored four straight top 10s and considering the St. Thomas, Ontario driver has been getting better each year on road courses, a win could quite possibly happen.
The string of success by the 2010 series champion is surprising, though equals the promise he offered at the beginning of the year. After finishing second to Scott Steckly last year, Kennington vowed to come back this year even stronger to get his crown back. Now, with the five wins, Kennington leads the standings by 41 points over last year’s champion Scott Steckly.
So far this year in seven starts, Kennington has won five of the races while finishing second and fifth in the other two. History shows that in championship strings, there’s always one race that deals the championship team a bad finish to force them to fight harder.
In the inaugural season of the Canadian Tire Series in 2007, Ranger had one win, seven top fives and 10 top 10s in 12 starts. He finished 13th at both Mosport and Kawartha.
In 2008, Steckly had four wins, nine top fives and nine top 10s in 13 starts. He was handed a 21st at Mosport, an 18th at Cayuga and a 17th in the season finale at Kawartha.
In 2009, Ranger had six wins, eight top fives and 13 top 10s in 13 starts. His worst finish was ninth, coming at Barrie and Kawartha.
As previously stated, Kennington had five wins, nine top fives and 11 top 10s in 13 starts in 2010. He finished 15th at Edmonton and 28th in Montreal.
Last year, Steckly had three wins, nine top fives and 10 top 10s in 12 starts. He was handed a 20th in Saskatoon and a 14th at Barrie.
So where is it most likely that Kennington will have a hiccup this year?
Well, this weekend doesn’t look like a likely chance as he has finished in the top 10 in his four last starts with a 12th in his first start at Trois-Rivieres
Circuit de Villleneuve is a likely spot as he has finished 28th and 18th in his last two starts there, despite finishing fourth in his first three starts in Montreal.
Barrie Speedway isn’t a likely spot despite being a tight track as he finished no worse than 10th, including three wins.
Riverside Speedway has been a mixed bag for Kennington as he has a third, 21st, 18th, first and fourth in five starts.
Despite finishing 25th in his first Kawartha Speedway start, Kennington has finished no worse than third since so that’s a solid spot for the St. Thomas, Ontario native.
No matter how the final five races of 2012 go, it’s no question that Kennington has made history this season already and could easily expand on that before the season is over in September.
